ACHIEVING GROWTH THROUGH INTEGRATION
By: Temitope W. Oshikoya, PhD, FCIB
Director General, West African Monetary Institute
Accra, Ghana
I. Introduction
It is a great honour and pleasure for me to be here today to address you on
the occasion of the 12th Annual African Business Conference. I would like to extend my special thanks
to the President and Co-Presidents, for hosting of this event and also
thank the Panel Organizers and all those who have been instrumental in making
this conference a success.
The Harvard Business School (HBS)
has good reasons to proudly organize this Annual African Business Conference. Founded
in 1908, the HBS has drawn on their passion for teaching, experience in working
with organizations worldwide, and the insights gained from research to educate
generations of leaders with ideas that have shaped the practice of management
in vital organizations of all kinds around the globe.
The HBS has broad and deep ties
with executives, scholars, alumni and other leaders and their organizations
worldwide. The school has maintained an unparallel global network of research
centers and offices in key cities around the world.
The case method, the cornerstone
of the school’s renowned general management approach provides students with the
transcendent skills, insights, and self-confidence required to meet
interdisciplinary demands of real business situations. Nearly 80 percent of
cases used at business schools worldwide are developed by HBS.
In addition to being leaders in
their academic fields, many of HBS Faculty also have hands-on business experience as consultants,
entrepreneur, investors, advisors, board members, and executives.
I am delighted to have this
opportunity to share my thoughts with you on Achieving growth through Economic
Integration.
This dialogue is taking place against
the backdrop of a global financial crisis, with some calling for a retreat from
globalization and regionalization. Thus, the quality and depth of our
deliberations today will play a significant role in providing insight into the
roles of regional economic integration in our continent.
Following this introduction, the
paper is divided into five sections. Section 2 raises the issue why regional
integration in Africa. Section 3 discusses the
benefits of regional economic integration, while section 4 focuses on Africa’s experience with regional integration, in
relation to its history, institutions, challenges and achievements made so far.
Section 5 is centred on the WAMZ experience with regional economic integration.
Section 6 proposes a developmental and holistic approach to regional economic integration,
while Section 7 concludes the paper.
2 Why Regional
Integration in Africa?
The foundation pillars for
regional integration in Africa are rooted in
the continent’s geography, geology, demography,
history and economy.
Geography: The
geographical landscape reveals that, Africa is a vast and land rich continent
with a total land area of nearly 30 million square kilometers, about three
times the size of the United States and ten times the size of India. Its sheer
land area dwarfs that of the combined major economies of the world, including that of the USA,
Western Europe, Japan, China, India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
countries, which average 27.8 million square kilometers (See Figure 1). Africa covers about 6 percent of the Earth’s total
surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area.
It is the second largest continent in the
world after Asia. The African
landscape is a rich and dynamic mosaic of resources, which includes forests and
woodlands, arable land, mountains, deserts, coastal lands and freshwater
systems that holds vast opportunities for development and improving human well-being
if managed sustainably. Although mainly arid and semi-arid, Africa
has significant freshwater resources to harness and expand irrigated
agriculture and enhance food production, and yet governments often depend on
food imports and/or humanitarian aid.
Geology: Africa is endowed with mineral and natural resources with
large parts of its terrain teeming with wild life and magnificent plant life.
The continent is blessed with an impressive endowment of mineral wealth,
including near-global monopolies of platinum, chromium and diamond; a high
proportion of the world’s gold, cobalt and manganese; and extensive reserves of
bauxite, coal, uranium, copper and nickel. Table 1 illustrates Africa’s domination of some of the world’s mineral
resources supply. For example, it is the top producer of platinum, cobalt,
vanadium, diamonds and gold and has very large shares of world reserves.
Figure 1: land Area (Millions sq Km)
%5b1%5d_files/image002.gif)
Table 1: Africa’s Mineral and Oil Reserves
|
Commodity
|
Africa
|
World
|
% of World Total
|
|
Platinum group metal (t)
|
63,000
|
71,000
|
89
|
|
Diamond (million carats)
|
350
|
580
|
60
|
|
Cobalt (t)
|
3,690,000
|
7,000,000
|
53
|
|
Zirconium (t)
|
14
|
38
|
37
|
|
Gold (t)
|
10,059
|
35,941
|
28
|
|
Vanadium (t)
|
3,000,000
|
13,000,000
|
23
|
|
Uranium (t)
|
656
|
4,416
|
15
|
|
Manganese (kt)
|
52,000
|
380,000
|
14
|
|
Chromium (t)
|
100,000
|
810,000
|
12
|
|
Titanium (kt)
|
63,000
|
660,000
|
10
|
|
Nickel (kt)
|
4,205
|
62,000
|
7
|
|
Coal (mt)
|
55,367
|
984,453
|
6
|
|
Oil proved (b)
|
117.5
|
1,237.9
|
9.5
|
|
Oil production(b)
|
10,318
|
81,533
|
13.0
|
|
Oil export (b)
|
8,165
|
54,824
|
14.9
|
Source: BP Statistics Review of
Work Energy, 2007
Africa
possesses 99 percent of the world's chrome resources, 89 percent of its
platinum, 70 percent of its tantalite, 53 percent of its cobalt, 60 percent of
its diamond and 28 percent of its gold among others (See Table 1). It has
significant oil and gas reserves. Of the proved oil reserves, Africa
account for 9.5 percent of the global total. Nigeria,
Algeria, Angola and Libya are four of the leading oil
producing countries in the world. Africa also
has substantial quantities of the world’s remaining natural gas.
Furthermore, Africa
is home to timber deposits and its enormous agricultural potential is vastly
untapped. The vast mineral wealth and strategic significance have encouraged
foreign powers to intervene in African affairs. However, its industrial base is
insignificant on the global market, and the majority of its people live in
growing poverty. Africa has numerous tourist attractions,
ranging from wildlife to cultural heritage, and yet it contributes only 4
percent annually to the multi-million dollar global tourism industry.
The continent has failed to tap the potential for its
natural resources wealth to serve as a driver for industrialization, economic
growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Indeed, many African
countries are rich in natural resources, but this has not always been a
blessing, especially for countries with considerable mineral resources.
This has become a persistent challenge for sustainable development and natural
resource management in Africa. The continent
is endowed with natural resources, which it badly needs for its own
development, but which others also want. Furthermore, for most African
countries, several decades of resource exploitation have not translated into
economic growth or improved the livelihoods and welfare of their growing
population.
Demography: In
addition to its abundant supply of land, the continent is blessed with abundant
labour supply that is not only youthful, but growing. With a population of
slightly below one billion people in the 53 countries, it accounts for about
14.8 percent of the World's human population. Comparatively, Africa’s
population is larger than the combined population of the USA, Japan,
Western Europe and the GCC countries (See Table
2). Only China and India have more population than Africa. In economic theory, land and labour are
considered as two major ingredients for the production process. Given that Africa is endowed with both labour and land, it is
therefore justified for the continent to attain sustainable growth. However,
irrespective of having abundant supply of land and labour, Africa is sparsely
populated, with a population density of 32 persons per square kilometers,
representing about one-fourth of the population density of China and one-tenth
that of India. A greater part of Africa’s
population is made up of active labour force.
Table 2: Land Area, Population and Density
|
Region/Country
|
Land Area (Millions sq km
|
Population
|
Population Density
|
|
Africa
|
29,469,151
|
957,565,422
|
32
|
|
China
|
9,326,410
|
1,328,600,000
|
142
|
|
India
|
2,973,190
|
1,169,020,000
|
393
|
|
Japan
|
364,500
|
127,970,000
|
351
|
|
USA
|
9,161,920
|
305,830,000
|
33
|
|
Western
Europe
|
3,575,430
|
405,555,350
|
113
|
|
GCC
|
2,422,130
|
37, 180,000
|
32
|
Source: World Bank (2008): World Development Indicators
History: From an
historical point of view, Africa has the
largest number of countries relative to total geographic area of any developing
region. It is however considered as being the most fragmented and subdivided
continent, with 165 borders demarcating the region into 53 countries— 22 of
which have a population of 5 million or less, and 11 of which have a population
fewer than 1 million.
Africa’s largest economy, South Africa, is
only the world’s 27th largest. African countries are also heterogeneous in
terms of natural resource endowments and levels of development, and many face
physical barriers to greater participation in the regional and global economy.
About 40 percent of Africa’s population is in
landlocked countries.
The continent is characterized by small national markets, limited opportunities
to create economies of scale, and high production costs (exacerbated by
under-developed infrastructure) that combine to hinder the development of
viable African firms and the expansion of trade, both intra-African and between
Africa and the rest of the world. As noted by
Williamson (2006), “it is not a
coincidence that two of the fastest growing countries in the world are the two
largest, with populations of over a billion people each. Conversely, one reason
for Africa’s disappointing economic
performance in recent years has been its division into many small states, one
of the unfortunate legacies of colonialism.”
Figure 2: Map of Africa
%5b1%5d_files/image004.jpg)
Source: www.africaguide.com/afmap.htm
Economy: An
integrated single economic space would improve the opportunities for
leapfrogging economic development in Africa. Despite
being endowed with abundant natural resources and land, Africa
has a weak economy in relation to other continents. With an average GDP
of just US$ 4 billion and a combined GDP less than that of Spain, African economies are small
in absolute terms. The per capita income of Africa is slightly above $1,300,
one-third that of Asia, while a country like Spain with a population of about 44
million has a per capita income of approximately $32,500.
Furthermore, Nigeria with the highest population of about 148
million in Africa had a GDP of $165.69 billion in 2007, while Belgium with a population of just over 10
million (less than 10% of Nigeria’s
population) has a GDP of $458.9 billion, which more than double that of Nigeria. A
comparison between Africa and Spain in terms of GDP and per capita income
showed that, despite representing about 5 percent of Africa’s population,
Spain’s GDP and per capita income are significantly higher than that of Africa
(See Figures 3 and 4). Intuitively, the result showed that, Spain has a stronger economy relative to the
whole of Africa. In addition, the country is
densely populated with a population density of 89, more than twice the
population density of Africa
%5b1%5d_files/image006.gif)
%5b1%5d_files/image008.gif)
3. Benefits and costs of Regional Economic
Integration
Benefits:
The ultimate goal of regional
integration is to create a common economic space among the participating
countries. Monetary and economic integration may evolve from trade links, as
well as, historical and cultural ties. The process entails the harmonization of
macroeconomic policies, legal frameworks and institutional architectures,
towards nominal and real convergence.
The potential benefits from regional economic integration include the
following:
(i)
Growth
Effects:
The standard argument that an economic integration can affect
the rate of output growth is realised through a faster growth of factor inputs,
particularly return on investment in human and physical capital, and through
increases in the growth of total factor productivity. Regional economic
integration, which typically encompasses reduction in regional trade barriers
and reduction in investment restrictions, can provide an important stimulus
that may attract foreign direct investment (FDI) both from within and outside
the regional integration arrangement (RIA) as a result of (i) market
enlargement, which subsequently serves as an engine for economic growth.
(ii)
Pro- Competitive
effect
Pro-competitive effects may relate to increased scale economies
and falling costs through the mechanism by which economic integration changes
price cost mark-ups. Economic integration which encourages trade liberalization
might successfully erode market power of dominant firms in member countries
through market entry of competing firms from other member countries. The effect
of trade liberalization arising from economic integration, would result in
falling market power and expanded output in imperfectly competitive sectors,
thereby reducing average production costs due to mass production, which
subsequently increase the welfare of the society and also encourages private
sector investment.
(iii)
Regional
Public Good
Developmental
and environmental efficiency gains may thus arise from adopting a regionally
integrated approach towards the provision of regional public goods (like
environment, water management, and migration, all of which have an impact on
the economy). Integration can help provide
or protect regional public goods
that cannot be effectively addressed individually but are best
tackled in a cooperative framework. In this regard, economic integration can
also be an effective approach towards conflict prevention by establishing ties
with economic partners in a region. For this reason regional economic
integration may have the potential to complement ongoing efforts to support
peace building, and regional good governance initiatives
(iv)
Pro-poor
growth
Economic
integration can contribute to pro poor growth by integrating labour markets and
lowering the barriers of investment for enterprises. Regional economic
integration processes can create single market economies that are characterised
by common administrative and juridical procedures, a harmonised application of
standards and norms or aligned rules for foreign investors. Creating these
solid and effective frameworks for economic operators can help stimulate
investment.
(v)
Exchange
rate risk
Economic
integration also results in harmonization of the exchange rates of member
countries into a unified exchange rate mechanism. This would lead to the
elimination of exchange rate risk among member states, and hence encourage
increased intra-regional trade and investment
(vi)
Enhance
Security and increase bargaining power
Regional integration may serve as
a platform for enhancing a country’s security in its relationship with other
members. The idea that increasing trade reduces the risk of conflict has a
distinguished pedigree. Collective bargaining power may help countries to
develop common positions and to bargain as a group rather than on a country by
country basis, which would contribute to increased visibility, credibility and
better negotiation outcomes in international fora such as the IMF, WTO, WB,
EPA, G7, among others. Entering into regional trade agreements (RTAs) may also
enable government to pursue policies that may improve the welfare of its
citizens. Regional integration
arrangement work best as a commitment mechanism for trade policy, and the
degree of openness of regional integration arrangement may help discipline in
macro economic policies.
Costs:
Despite the gains associated with
regional integration, however, integration can be complicated by perceived
losses among the members, including the following:
(i)
Loss of National
Sovereignty: Economic integration would result in member countries’ central
bank giving up their sole role of conducting monetary policy as well as
relinquishing their national currencies.
(ii)
Loss of Revenue-
regional integration will reduce government tariff revenue. The reduction in
tariff revenue may impact negatively on government’s ability from financing
social, health and education programme.
(iii)
Discourage
Infant industry- Economic integration would discourage infant industries
from external competition, as some sectors in each country would suffer from
competition with more efficient producers in the partner markets
In summary, regional integration
can foster competition, subsidiarity, access to wider market (via trade),
larger and diversified investment and production, socio-economic and political
stability and bargaining power for the countries involved. It can be
multi-dimensional to cover the movement of goods and services (i.e. trade),
capital and labour, socio-economic policy coordination and harmonisation,
infrastructure development, environmental management, and reforms in other
public goods such as governance, peace, defense and security. The overall gains
from regional integration cannot be underscored. Regional integration can
serves an engine for economic growth. For success, integration thus requires
strong commitment in implementing the agreed arrangements, fair mechanisms to
arbitrate disputes and equitable distribution of the gains and costs of
integration
Intra-Africa Trade
African integration includes, as one of its objectives,
the promotion of intra-regional trade. Despite the long history of regional
integration on the continent, intra-African trade remains low in comparison
with intraregional trade in other regions.
Africa’s share of global export declined from 2.3 percent
in 2004 to 2.10 percent in 2007, while Africa’s import as a share of global
import slightly fell from 2.20 percent in 2004 to 2.11 percent in 2007 (World
Bank data Base, 2008/09).
Overall, Africa’s import
and export as a share of world trade remained generally low as evident in Table
3. Africa’s export as a share of world export
averaged 2.2 percent during 2001-2007, while the corresponding import as a
share of world import averaged 2.1 percent during the same period. The low
pattern in Africa’s trade is generally
attributed to the lack of diversification, due to the high concentration on
similar primary commodities and lack of value adding, as well as the exclusion
of informal sector trade. The continent is unable to fully utilize its natural
resources and take advantage of its size to influence world trade. Some
countries face a difficult trade-off between public revenue losses from trade liberalization
and the long-term benefits from trade integration. This tends to delay the
ratification of trade protocols and postpone their implementation.
Table 3: Regional
Trade as a % of World Trade (Import and Export)
%5b1%5d_files/image010.gif)
Foreign
Direct Investment
Africa
remains the region of the world that attracts the least Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) inflows (see Table 4). FDI inflows to Africa as a share of
world total was extremely low compared to that of Asia and Latin
America. FDI inflows to Africa increased
from 0.69 percent in 2000 to 2.72 percent in 2006, and averaged 2.1 percent of
world total during the period 2000-2006. In Asia, FDI inflows as a share of world
total increased from 10.5 percent in 2000 to 19.9 percent in 2006, while Latin America suffered a slight fall in the share of FDI
inflow from 6.9 percent in 2000 to 6.4 percent in 2006. Given the low FDI
inflows to Africa in general, it is believed that the formation of regional
integration blocs on the continent will serve as a strong pillar to usher in
higher FDI to countries in Africa.
Table 4: Distribution of world FDI inflows by Region (% of World)
|
Year/Region
|
Africa
|
Asia
|
Latin
America
|
|
2000
|
0.69
|
10.51
|
6.93
|
|
2001
|
2.40
|
13.63
|
9.42
|
|
2002
|
2.18
|
15.81
|
8.73
|
|
2003
|
3.31
|
20.38
|
7.92
|
|
2004
|
2.43
|
22.91
|
12.71
|
|
2005
|
3.13
|
22.07
|
7.99
|
|
2006
|
2.72
|
19.87
|
6.41
|
Source: UNCTAD
(2008), FDI database and World investment Directory, Volume x
Africa
4 Africa’s
Experience with Regional Integration
From the above analysis, it is
glaring that Africa’s abundant supply of minerals,
labour and land has been under utilized. There is a strong consensus that one
of the best ways to bolster Africa’s growth
potential and address these constraints is through greater regional and
continental economic integration. Regional integration appears to be one of the
frameworks to address obstacles in intra-trade in African in order to create
larger regional markets that can achieve economies of scale and sustain
production systems and market as well as enhance Africa’s
competitiveness.
4.1 History
Since the independence era,
almost all Africa countries have embraced
regionalism. During the 1960s to 1980s, several intergovernmental economic
cooperation organizations were established to promote technical and economic
cooperation. The reasons for the establishment of these regional agreements are
to expand the growth of intraregional trade through removal of tariff and
non-tariff barriers, strengthen regional development through regional
infrastructural development, establishment of large scale manufacturing
project, allow free movement of factors of production and, promote monetary
cooperation. This period was characterized by interventionist and protectionist
trade regimes arising from fiscal concern and protection of domestic industry.
In response to the deteriorating
economic situation in Africa during the 1960s and 1970s, the continent adopted
the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) in 1980, aimed at shifting Africa
to a sustainable development path. The LPA was set to achieve three goals: high
and sustainable economic growth, transformation of the economic and social
structure, and maintenance of a sustainable resource base. However, the
overriding objective of the LPA was the achievement of effective regional
infrastructure in the domain of an inward-looking regional strategy. In the mid
1980s, individual countries within Africa adopted an outward-oriented strategy
as a prerequisite to the Structural Adjustment programme (SAP), aimed at
achieving a closer integration of Africa into
the global world economy
In order to speed up the
integration process and achieve sustainable development, Africa countries
adopted the Abuja Treaty in 1991, with the aim of establishing the African
Economic Communities (AEC) by 2027, with a
common currency, full mobility of factors of production and free movement of
good and services among African countries. Furthermore, Africa’s
quest to accelerate policy discussion on regional integration, led to the birth
of the African Union (AU) in 2001 and the launch of the New Partnership for
African Development (NEPAD).
4.1.1 NEPAD and regional integration
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD) as the most recent African development initiative also regards the
issue of regional integration as one of the key mechanisms to solving Africa’s problems. Regional integration is seen as one of
the fundamental ways of tackling Africa’s
exclusion from "the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a
globalizing world". Another objective of regional integration according to
NEPAD “is to bridge existing gaps between Africa
and the developed countries so as to improve the continent’s international
competitiveness and to enable her to participate in the globalization process".
NEPAD, on several occasions, touched on many of
these aims and the motivations for African cooperation and integration. These
include the observation that "most African countries are small both in
terms of population and per capita income"; the need for Africans to pool
their resources and enhance regional development; and the importance of the
provision of essential regional public goods, such as transport, energy, water,
environmental preservations, disease eradication, and regional research
capacity, among others. The existence of NEPAD is in recognition that after
many decades of economic and political planning, Africa
has not made much progress in the implementation of earlier development plans.
The general requirement of globalization is that
countries should become part of international rules and regulations i.e.
multi-lateral system of governance. Specifically, this requires increased
discipline by governments to maintain sound and consistent macro-economic and
structural policies. In this vein, NEPAD seeks to move away from "closed
regionalism" to a more open model of “new regionalism” aimed at
strengthening the functional and market-based approach to regional integration.
4.2 Institutions (RECs)
The desire to overcome the economic disadvantages of
fragmentation gave rise to the establishment of a plethora of treaties and regional
institutions whose overriding objective was the creation of self-reliant
development of Member States. Currently, there are multiple RECs in Africa, many of which have overlapping memberships. The
RECs consist primarily of trade blocs, but also embrace political, economic and
security cooperation. Following the Lagos Plan of Action (1980) and Abuja
Treaty (1991), various regional arrangements on policy coordination,
cooperation or integration have been initiated, re-invigorated or re-aligned to
continental aspiration on integration in the following sub-regional blocs (See
Table 5)
Table 5: Major African RECs
%5b1%5d_files/image012.gif)
a. The South
African Development Community (SADC):
SADC, which is a Free Trade Area (FTA), was created from the Southern African
Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) in August 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia
and comprise thirteen member states.
The ultimate objective of SADC is to build a region
in which there will be a high degree of harmonization and rationalization to
enable the pooling of resources to achieve collective self-reliance in order to
improve the living standards of the people of the region. This objective
is to be achieved through increased regional integration, built on democratic
principles, equitable and sustainable development. The countries of Southern
Africa have adopted a framework of co-operation
based on: “deeper economic co-operation and integration, on basis of balance,
equity and mutual benefit, providing for enhanced investment and trade, and
freer movement of factors of production, goods and services across national
borders; common economic, political, social values and systems, enhancing
enterprise and competitiveness, democracy and good governance, respect for the
rule of law and the guarantee of human rights, popular participation and the
alleviation of poverty; and regional solidarity, peace and security.
b. The Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA): COMESA was founded in 1994 as a replacement to the former Preferential
Trade Area (PTA) which had existed from the earlier days of 1981. COMESA
was established 'as an organisation of free independent sovereign states which
have agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for
the good of all their people' and as such it has a wide-ranging series of
objectives which necessarily include in its priorities the promotion of peace
and security in the region. It is made up of nineteen member states, and nine
of the member states formed a FTA in 2000. In 2008, COMESA agreed to an
expanded Free-trade zone including members of two other African trade blocs,
the East African Community (EAC) and SADC
c. East African
Community (EAC): The Treaty for establishment of the EAC was signed in 1999
and entered into force in 2000 with an initial membership of three nations. The
membership however, increased to five since 2007, with Burundi and Rwanda becoming members of the EAC.
The EAC aims at widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States
in, among others, political, economic and social fields for their mutual
benefit. To this extent the EAC countries established a Customs Union in 2005
and are working towards the establishment of a Common Market by 2010,
subsequently a monetary union by 2012 and ultimately a political federation of
the East African States.
d. Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS): ECOWAS is a regional grouping of fifteen West African
countries, founded on May 28, 1975 with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos. It
was founded to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for the member
states by means of economic and monetary union creating a single large trading
bloc. The very slow progress towards this resulted in the treaty being revised
in Cotonou on
July 24, 1993 towards a closer collaboration. ECOWAS comprise two sub-regional
groups. These are;
(i)
The
West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which is an organization of
eight states of West Africa established in
1994 to promote economic integration among countries that share a common
currency, the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is
guaranteed by the French Treasury.
(ii)
The
West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) on the other hand is a group of five
countries in ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency, the Eco by the
year 2015. The WAMZ was formed in 2000
to establish a second currency and a single Central Bank. The eventual goal is
for the CFA franc and Eco to merge, giving all of West
Africa a single and stable currency. The West African Monetary Institute
(WAMI) came into existence in 2001, to implement the WAMZ Program. Currently,WAMI is reorienting its
strategic approach towards infrastructural development as evident in the
Payments System Project within the Zone; providing Institutional support through
the development of Trade Policy and Program for The Gambia; signing a MOU on
Cross-border banking supervision, strengthening market and financial
integration as well as statistical harmonization in the zone.
e The
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD): The Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) in Eastern Africa which comprises seven member states was
created in 1996 to supersede the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and
Development (IGADD), founded in 1986. The recurring and severe droughts and
other natural disasters between 1974 and 1984 caused widespread famine,
ecological degradation and economic hardship in the Eastern
Africa region.
Although individual countries
made substantial efforts to cope with the situation and received generous
support from the international community, the magnitude and extent of the
problem argued strongly for a regional approach to supplement national efforts. IGAD remains a key regional organization for achieving
peace, prosperity and regional integration in the IGAD region. The IGAD mission
is to assist and complement the efforts of the Member States to achieve,
through increased cooperation: Food Security and environmental protection; Promotion
and maintenance of peace, security and humanitarian affairs; as well as
Economic cooperation and integration.
f. Community of
Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD): CEN-SAD is a framework for Integration and Complementarity
made up of twenty-three member states across Africa.
The regional body of CEN-SAD was established on 4th February 1998 following the
Conference of Leaders and Heads of States held in Tripoli (Great Jahamiriya). The main aim of CEN-SAD is to work together
with other RECs and the African Union (AU) in order to strengthen peace, security
and achieve global economic, social development and stability.
g. Arab Maghreb Union (AMU): The Treaty of the AMU was formed in 1989
by five Member States with the aim of strengthening all forms of ties among
Member States in order to ensure regional stability and enhance policy
coordination, as well as to introduce free circulation of goods, services and
factors of production. Common defense and
non-interference in the domestic affairs of the partners are also key
aspect of the Treaty. The agreement provide the possibility for other Arab and
African countries to join the union at a later stage
4.3 Challenges
Regional integration process in Africa
has faced several challenges. With regard to formal integration arrangements;
there is often a substantial gap between the aspirations expressed in the
treaties and the reality on the ground. The reasons are manifold but are
usually attributed to lack of commitment towards enhanced integration which
results in lack of supranational authority and weak regional coordination
mechanisms. In many integration systems there is an imbalance of political and
economic power among member countries. African integration efforts have had
limited impact so far. This has been due to a number of constraints, including:
Inadequate
Political Commitment: This
is one of the most serious constraints to integration. There has been
inadequate practical political will to effectively implement agreed programmes
for economic integration. This in part explains the seemingly contradictory or
overlapping schemes for economic integration, the inadequate funding for
economic integration organizations in terms of low priority being given to
them, and the slow or little progress made in achieving stated objectives at
the continental, regional and sub-regional levels. Because post-independence
regional cooperation has its roots in political interests, rather than economic
rationale, measures agreed in regional forums are rarely incorporated in national
policies and plans. Implementation at the country level had been rather slow.
This is clearly seen with a number of regional protocols, which are not
ratified for years in several Member States due to fear of the short-term
political and economic problems, a shortage of resources, inadequate expertise,
or lack of interest.
Slow ratification of protocols and reluctant
implementation of agreed plans: Due
to low political commitment and/or perceived or real losses and
sacrifices involved, a number of countries have been reluctant to fully
implement integration programmes on a timely basis. This has been partly
caused by the lack of prior cost-benefit analysis and broad internal consultations
on the part of the member countries concerned. In some cases, changes in
the socio-economic and political dynamics within the member states
involved have also militated against implementation of regionally agreed
programmes, especially where socio-economic sacrifices are concerned.
Private Sector
and Civil Society Participation: Regional integration issues
and programmes are often discussed without the active
participation of the constituencies most affected—the
private sector and civil society. Lack of full private sector
involvement at both planning and implementation stage has not elicited maximum
deliberate input from this important sector, which usually has the financial
resources and owns productive capacity. In most countries the private sector
remains weak and is still not well organized. Civil society involvement has
also been wanting. In particular,
expansion of markets, along with its challenges and
opportunities for cross border formal and informal trade, is
something in which the business community takes great interest.
Similarly, the possibility of labor movements across
national borders is something labor unions should help
to shape.
Financial and
Administrative Resources: Inadequate budgetary
support, administrative and managerial weaknesses have adversely
affected the effectiveness of RECs. They need strong, adequately
trained, and independent management. And with few exceptions, the
RECs have not made sufficient progress in establishing
self-financing mechanisms. They rely on assessed contributions
from their Member States, which are paid erratically, largely
due to weak national budgetary positions. The lack of mechanisms and resources
for effective planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring and pragmatic
adjustment of programmes on the ground has significantly impacted on
fast-tracking regional integration in Africa.
Overlapping Membership: Many African countries belong to several regional
groupings or sub-groupings that sometimes compete, conflict or overlap amongst
themselves rather than complement each other. The proliferation of overlapping
regional schemes which sometimes resulted in conflicting spheres of
jurisdiction, where different organizations in the same region have the same
mandate, or where a country belongs to two or more organizations that are
pursuing different policies at a particular time; impede the process of region
integration. This adds to the burden of harmonization and coordination, and is
wasteful duplication in view of constrained resources and loss of efficiency
advantages.
Figure 5: Africa:
Overlapping membership in regional integration groups
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4.4 What has worked?
Inspite of the challenges, progress has been made by
Member States towards economic cooperation as well as accelerating the overall
regional integration process especially in functional sectoral cooperation.
Some of the activities and progress made by RECs in Africa
relate to Infrastructure, Communicable Diseases, Water, Agriculture, and
Education. Some of the achievements are discussed as follows:
A. Infrastructure:
Infrastructure plays a fundamental role in the integration, development and
poverty eradication process. Various infrastructural developments have taken
place amongst the various RECs Member States including the following:
(a)
Energy- Access to sustainable and
affordable energy supply is a key priority for RECs Energy programme. In West Africa, the ECOWAS Commission has anchored this
thrust on the promotion of long-term cooperation in the effective development
of regional energy resources and harmonized national energy sector development
policies. Hence, the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) project, a 679- Kilometer
long pipeline from the gas reserves in Nigeria’s
Escravos of Niger Delta to Benin,
Togo and Ghana started in 1982. The
construction started in 2005 and the project has been fully completed. In the
SADC region, the South Africa Power Pool (SAPP) was established in 1995 to
expand electricity trade, reduce energy costs and provide greater stability for
the region’s national utilities.
(b)
Roads,
Railways Corridors- IGAD has played a role of advocacy to support the
Member States in improving roads connecting countries, including the Djibouti-
Addis Ababa road/rail links and the Isiolo-Moyale Corridor connecting Kenya and
Ethiopia. In addition, steady progress has being maintained in the EAC on road
and rail network, including the Mombasa-Katuna
Road (Northern Corridor) and the Dar Es Salaam-Mutukula Road
(Central Corridor).
(c)
Communication-
The availability of communications networks
characterized by a high degree of integration and interconnectivity is a
guarantee for interregional trade. Communications services including the advent
of advanced services are without doubt critical for remote business
transactions including e-commerce, which would facilitate trade within the
region and beyond. The use of communications and more recently information
communications technologies (ICT) has gained prominence and importance as an
integrating tool for the continent and also in promoting the socio economic
development of the region. Regional Integration has served as a platform for
effective mobile communication network. For instance, the MTN mobile network is
in operation in Nigeria, Ghana, South
Africa, etc, while Safaricom mobile company is prominent
in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, providing employment for
nationals of these countries and contributing significantly to government
revenue. The use of roaming facilities on mobile phone has facilitated
communication across the globe.
B. Financial
Institutions: In the financial sector, the significant share of African
banking system has contributed to closer financial linkages, thereby
intensifying trade, economic and financial interdependence in the continent.
Thus, as a consequence of the revitalization of the Nigerian banking sector,
Nigerian banks now play a central role in Africa’s
financial system. The spread of Nigerian
banks across the continent demonstrates stronger ties towards financial sector
integration and symbolizes potential gains to both Nigeria and the recipient country.
For smooth running of the financial and services transactions, ECOWAS developed
a Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), while EAC created the East
African Development Bank to pursue programmes designed to enhance the bank’s
capacity to play a more substantive and sustainable role as a regional
development finance institution.
Furthermore,
the African Development Bank has emerged as one of the lead financiers of
regional integration in Africa, primarily
through the African Development Fund (ADF) window. Similarly, PTA Bank was
established in the COMESA region for promoting investments and providing trade
financing facilities. In order to strengthen the financial system within the
WAMZ countries, WAMI is undertaking a $23 million Payments System project in
The Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone so that these countries financial
system can be at par with that of Ghana
and Nigeria.
This is a step towards integrating the financial sector which serves as a
recipe for regional integration.
C. Capacity Building:
There have been many activities on
capacity building amongst the various RECs in Africa.
These include identification of training needs, development of training
concepts, mobilizing funds, organizing, conducting or facilitating workshops
covering a range of activities including cross cutting themes like the global
financial crisis, China’s role in Africa, information management, among others.
Capacity building is perceived as one of the benefits of regional integration.
Regional integration has also helped to strengthen the educational system in
sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This is evident from the Masters and PhD programmes
undertaken by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), which has
trained thousands of students in the SSA. In addition, the Ghana Institute of
Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has developed a comprehensive
training and capacity building programme targeted to all categories of staff,
in particular top personnel of African governments, regional economic
communities and other stakeholders in African integration.
D. HIV/AIDS
Prevention: To cope with the progression of HIV/AIDS in West Africa,
the ECOWAS Commission in collaboration with UNESCO, the World Bank, UNICEF and
UNAIDS identified focal points within the Ministries of Education of its region
and assigned them the responsibility of developing effective responses to
HIV/AIDS. ECCAS on the other hand, developed a strategic framework and plan of
action including setting up of health information system and creating a
regional fund for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Central
Africa. IGAD created a Regional HIV and AIDS Partnership Programme
(IRAPP) to fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS.
E. Free Movements of Persons: Free
movements of persons include the abolition of visa and entry permit requirement
and guaranteeing the right of residence and right of establishment. This has
been exemplary in ECOWAS as no visa is required any where for nationals of
Member States who travel across the ECOWAS region. COMESA has made great
progress in the free movement of persons and has adopted two Protocols in that
direction which includes; the Protocol on the Gradual relaxation and Eventual
Elimination of visa and the Protocol on the free movement of Persons; Labour;
Services; Right of Establishment and Residence. In the EAC region, progress has
been made on the free movement of persons, with the operation of the EAC
Passports allowing multiple entries to EAC citizens to travel freely within the
EAC region for a period of six months.
5 The WAMZ
Experience
The West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) which comprises the Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra
Leone
was established in 2000 by the Authority of heads of State and Government at
their summit meeting held in Bamako,
Mali. A major
objective for the establishment of the WAMZ was for the institutions, policies,
political support, legal and administrative arrangements to serve as a catalyst
which would hasten the attainment of monetary integration in the zone and the
evolution of a common monetary authority for the realisation of the benefits of
such integration. The ultimate objective of the WAMZ is to “fast track” the
realisation of ECOWAS monetary integration project through helping to create
conditions which would make the process of unification of similar UEMOA and
WAMZ monetary integration arrangements relatively easier and faster than to do
otherwise. The West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) was, therefore,
established in January 2001 to commence preparatory work towards the
introduction of a single currency and a common central bank in the WAMZ. It has
the mandate of articulating a policy framework and developing institutional
structure for the WAMZ. Its major functions include:
(i)
Monitoring macroeconomic performance of and movement
towards macroeconomic convergence by member countries and making appropriate
observations and recommendations accordingly;
(ii)
Facilitating the harmonization of financial and banking
rules and regulations of the various member countries with the Agreement and
Statutes of the WAMZ. The harmonization would be useful in the conduct of
monetary policy when a common central bank is established;
(iii)
Working out the modalities and analyzing the
technicalities of establishing a common central bank and introducing a common
currency. WAMI is also to articulate the monetary policy objectives and
developing the appropriate monetary policy instruments for the envisaged common
central bank.
(iv)
Facilitating the sensitization of the citizenry of
member countries on the monetary integration process and eventual introduction
of the single currency in the zone.
Towards the end of 2002, it became clear that the proposed
launching of the WAMZ monetary union in January 2003 was not feasible, because
of the low level of macroeconomic convergence, amidst the progress made on
policy harmonization and designed of the architecture of the monetary union.
Consequently, the Authority of Heads of State and Government at its meeting in Conakry in 2002 shifted
the launch date to 2005 to allow sufficient progress to be made on all aspects
of the programme. The Authority of Heads of State and Government also postponed
the launch date to 2009. They approved an expanded work programme for
facilitating the emergence of the monetary union as scheduled. A detailed work
plan, the Banjul Action Plan (BAP) was prepared by WAMI for implementing the
new WAMZ work programme.
The BAP identified for each
aspect of the programme the objectives, components, activities, time-frame for
completion and the responsibilities for implementation. Significant progress
was made for the launch of the monetary union in 2009. However, WAMI undertook
a detailed study in accessing the countries readiness for the monetary union in
2009, and the conclusion from the report showed that the target date cannot be
met because of slippages in satisfying the macroeconomic convergence criteria
and other structural bench marks. The authority of the Heads of State and
Government in its Meeting in Abuja,
Nigeria on 23rd
May, 2009 took a resolution to postpone the launch date to on/before January
2015.
Progress towards the Achievement of
a Single Currency
Despite the persistent
postponement of the launch date for the introduction of the currency, WAMI has
made significant progress towards the realization of the WAMZ programme. On
macroeconomic convergence, WAMI as part of its mandate normally undertakes
bi-annual multilateral surveillance mission to the member states to assess
their macroeconomic performance in line with the macroeconomic convergence
criteria as well as the structural and institutional benchmarks, and providing
recommendations therein. These surveillance missions have helped to reveal the
macroeconomic performance status of member countries, and act as signals to
poor performing countries to re-double their efforts so as to catch up with
good performing countries. The essence of implementing the convergence criteria
is to maintain macroeconomic stability within member states, with the aim of
minimizing the effect of asymmetric shocks once the Union
kinks-off. Macroeconomic stability would enhance business confidence and
encourage private sector development.
On the design of the architecture
for monetary union, WAMI was able to obtain a loan amounting to $23 million for
the development of the payments system infrastructure in the Gambia, Guinea
and Sierra Leone in order to
bring them to par with those obtaining in Ghana
and Nigeria.
The development of the Payments system would facilitate cross-border high-value
payments to support the implementation of the West African Central Bank (WACB) monetary
policy, and maintain efficiency in the banking sector, through timely payment
and transfer of funds. This situation would be strongly favourable to the
business community and the private sector in general
Furthermore, WAMI initiated a
process of evaluating the statistical capacities of the five member states of
the WAMZ to report on the four primary and six secondary surveillance criteria.
This process produced the WAMZ Statistics Harmonization Action Plan, which was
formally adopted by the WAMZ Statistics Experts Group. The Action Plan
anticipated the production of a comprehensive, itemized and budgeted summary of
improvements needed by WAMZ statistics producers to enable convergence
surveillance. In this regard, WAMI has
been collaborating closely with the statistical harmonization programme of the
ECOWAS Commission’s Monetary Cooperation Programme. The focus of the ECOWAS
Programme has been to ensure that member states’ CPI and GDP statistics are
comparable through the adoption of a common presentational platform and
classification systems.
WAMI is currently working on a
project on Financial Sector Integration and cross border banking supervision.
This would provide the basis and enabling environment for the implementation of
a robust single monetary policy. It would also ensure the reduction of
transaction costs, greater diversification and risk reduction, and financial
markets efficiency. This would build investors confidence and hence trigger
private sector development with the ultimate goal of achieving sustainable
economic growth.
The WAMZ programme also includes
issues relating to the actualization of a single economic space. In pursuit of
creating a single economic space for the WAMZ, WAMI in collaboration with
ECOWAS has established a free trade area involving factor mobility, lowering of
barriers to the free flow of eligible goods and persons, and the adoption of
common external tariffs. This was implemented through existing agreements to
which countries are signatory to, in particular, the protocols on free movement
of goods and persons, the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS), the
adoption of the Common External Tariff (CET) and the harmonization of indirect
taxes within the zone. In addition to the establishment of a CET, the single
market scheme also envisages the harmonization of indirect taxes and investment
regimes in ECOWAS.
Overall, the record of progress
regarding the compliance with the BAP, although insufficient to launch a
monetary union, bodes well for the future success of the common currency. An
enhancement of this success would ultimately depend upon strong commitment and
political will to carry through with the necessary policies and programmes to
ensure the creation of flexible economic structures in each of the member
countries that would stimulate both nominal and real convergence across the
zone. The broadening of the WAMZ programme to include establishment of a
customs union, regional development projects, and financial sector integration
among others effectively extended the mandate from single currency project to
full economic and monetary integration.
6 Towards a Developmental and holistic approach to
Regional Integration
From the discussion of Africa’s
experience, there is need to have a developmental and holistic approach to
regional integration. Regional Integration should be pursued as a means to
promoting Africa’s development. Regional
Integration is not an end in itself, but a process to support broad-based
economic growth, enhanced productive efficiency; develop infrastructure
network; strengthening the link to the outside world; promoting regional peace
and security.
Table 7: Typology of Regional Integration
Initiatives
i.
Market
Enlargement: Regional Integration should be oriented towards market
enlargement in order to enjoy the benefit of economies of large scale
production. It is usually envisaged that big is beautiful, and hence market
enlargement should also involve the creation of a single economic space. Furthermore,
regional integration should encourage cross-border trade in order to gain from
trade diversion and creation and enjoy the benefit of comparative advantage and
efficiency. It should involve the development, harmonization and integrating of
national and regional financial markets, including elimination of barriers and
reducing risks affecting the free movement of labour and capital, especially in
terms of cross-border and foreign direct investment.
ii.
Private Sector
Engagement: There should be full private sector involvement at both
planning and implementation stages in the integration process. The private
sector is perceived to have the financial resources and owns productive
capacity, and hence their involvement in regional integration arrangements could
have significant impact in moving the integration process forward. In this
regard, the integration process should be inclusive and participatory.
iii.
Regional Public
Good: Regional integration should be seen as a regional public good; whose
use by one country does not (or hardly) reduces the use by others. Regional
public goods (RPGs) are thus conceptualized as goods or services which display spill-over
benefits to countries in the neighborhood of the producing country, usually in
the same region, since they are non-excludable and exhibit non-rivalry of
consumption. In this regard, the provision of regional public good (regional
Integration) should be considered as a collective effort involving all
beneficiaries, rather than seen as a single country’s role.
iv.
Infrastructural
Development: Infrastructure plays a fundamental role in integration,
development and poverty eradication processes. There is need to strengthen
activities in infrastructural development in order to promote sustainable
development of African economies. Infrastructural development could be in the
area of roads, railways, electricity, water supply, communication network,
among others.
v.
Macroeconomic
Convergence: Furthermore, the process of Regional Integration should ensure
strong macroeconomic convergence. In most Regional Economic Communities, Member
States need to meet certain requirements (macroeconomic convergence criteria)
as pre-requisite towards integration. For instance, the WAMZ has four (4)
primary and six (6) secondary criteria which serves as a sine qua non for the formation of a monetary union.
vi.
Political
Commitment: There is the need to have a strong political commitment by
member countries. The ratification and implementation of treaties and
protocols, without inefficiencies, lapses or reversals should be given utmost
priority. Also, in order to speed up the
process of regional integration, it is necessary to strengthen and empower the
institutions that implement and monitor regional integration programmes both at
the regional and country levels. Any central authority overseeing convergence
and integration should be independent of all national authorities’ influences.
vii.
Capacity Building:
Capacity for comprehensive and consistent planning, policy formulation and
implementation at the national level should be strengthened to reduce the risks
of conflicting policy objectives, and enhance synchrony and complementarity.
Capacity also needs to be sharpened to effectively tackle all stages of
integration: from planning, to coordination, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of impact. This calls for human and institutional capacity building
covering planning, policy analysis/formulation, implementation and monitoring
of programmes.
6.1 The SANE as Africa’s
Growth Pole
The SANE – South Africa, Algeria,
Nigeria, and Egypt – represents almost a fifth and a third of the Continent’s
land mass and population respectively, and accounts for slightly more than half
of Africa’s total GDP in both nominal and purchasing power parity terms. The
remaining 49 African countries, with two-thirds of the region’s population,
have 45 percent of the continent’s GDP. Remarkably, the SANE also shares half
of Africa’s exports, trade balance, foreign
direct investment, and foreign reserves. The relative economic size and
importance of the SANE is even more pronounced at the sub-regional levels.
The SANE has four distinct
comparative advantages in becoming regional growth poles for Africa
— resource endowments, geography, human capital and market size.
First, the SANE are resource-rich countries, with natural resource rents. Algeria and Nigeria
alone account for almost half of Africa’s
proven hydro-carbon reserves and production, with combined reserves of $130
billion, equivalent to half of their GDP. The second factor in favour of the
SANE is physical geography. They are coastal states, which could generate
positive externalities by providing access to external markets to benefit their
land-locked neighboring countries. With South
Africa in the South and part of Central,
Algeria in the North-west, Nigeria in the West and Central, and Egypt
in the North-east, the physical geography of the SANE could foster openness to
both intra-African trade and global trade.
The third factor is that SANE is
endowed with human capital and accounts for a third of Africa’s
population. This implies SANE is labour intensive, and provide adequate input
into the production process. The fourth factor in favour of the SANE is market
size, which provides opportunities for firms to reap increasing returns to
scale and network effects. Average per capita income is three times higher in
the SANE relative to the rest of Africa.
Although Nigeria’s
per capita income is lower than the African average, its middle class provides
a market size which is large enough compared to most other African countries. Africa’s population is roughly divided equally among the
SANE, the sixteen land-locked countries, and the remaining spatially dispersed
33 smaller coastal countries
The interaction of the four
factors – endowments, geography, human capital, and market size – gives the SANE natural advantage to
become economic growth poles for Africa
There are no secret recipes for
translating economic potentials to prosperity. In the case of the SANE, the
missing ingredients have been the low level and productivity of investment in
institutions, people, infrastructure, and knowledge both nationally and
regionally. With external debts at low level, about 5 percent of GDP, the SANE
should encourage the development of effective institutions to promote regional
peace and stability, financial capital, mobility of labour, and intra-African
trade and integration. Although intra- African trade remains below ten percent,
trade among the SANE has been on the increase. While large population size
provide a critical mass of labour force, the accumulation of human capital
through education is essential for innovation and participation in the global
knowledge economy.
A collective approach led by the SANE
countries is necessary to providing public goods with regional externalities
including science and technology, innovation, climate and environment, and
natural resource management. The SANE could play more pivotal role in being the
voice of Africa in regional and global
institutions. Already, the SANE and Senegal have been the driving force
spearheading the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). More than
ever, now is the time for the SANE to take the lead in facilitating regional
energy, transport, and telecommunication infrastructure projects, with the
potential to lower one of the major barriers to the region’s competitiveness
Figure 6: SANE Economies
%5b1%5d_files/image018.gif)
%5b1%5d_files/image020.gif)
7 Conclusion
The benefits of regional integration, and indeed globalization,
remain a critical part of Africa’s development
strategy. Africa’s
regional integration is rooted in the continent’s geography, geology,
demography, history and economy. Our
experience with regional integration provides modest achievements and complex
constraints/challenges.
The history of regional integration transcend from an
inward-looking regional strategy characterized by political decolonization, interventionist
and protectionism in the 1960s and 1970s to a more outward-oriented framework
aimed at achieving stronger bargaining power and closer integration of Africa
into the global world economy. This new dimension of open regionalism, led to
the adoption of the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) in 1980. The urge towards
achieving sustainable development resulted in the signing of the Abuja Treaty
in 1991 that sanctioned the establishment of the African Economic Communities
(AECs), followed by the establishment of the African Union and NEPAD
The current wave of interest in regional integration is
moving towards developmental and holistic approach, characterized by market
enlargement, private sector engagement, infrastructural development,
macroeconomic convergence as well as conceptualizing regional integration as a
regional public good.
Being the economic power house for Africa, SANE should be
more proactive in serving as the continent’s growth poles in unlocking Africa’s
potential for economic prosperity, since it has the potential of spurring
development within their immediate environments, and ultimately, all over
Africa, due to its size, scale and scope.
The era of isolated tiny national economies has to give
way to strategic alliances that harness knowledge-and-resource-based
comparative advantages through integration. This however does not come
effortlessly and at no cost: a lot of dedicated planning and hard work must be
put in first. Much progress has been made by member states towards regional
integration. However, there is need to
intensify the Developmental Approach especially in the areas of infrastructure,
private sector participation, open regionalism, market integration, monetary
and financial integration. This can be achieved through greater resolve,
speed and effectiveness in translating the good intensions into concrete
programme that can be implemented, monitorable and produce results-oriented
actions on the ground.
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